Crup in a Baby Cup
by BloodyPinkRose
Summary: "Was Potter seriously going to kidnap him? The situation proved too much for his delicate sensibilities and Draco Malfoy, Ex-Death Eater of terror passed out like a little girl." Harry needs help and there's only one person he wants. AU Postwar HD


**BloodyPinkRose - I've been working on this for a while and although I wasn't going to post it, the sudden murder of my eighteen year old classmate and her family made me change my mind. For a lovely girl who was obsessed with Harry Potter, maybe a dash too much, RIP darling friend. I Don't Own Harry Potter! I hope you enjoy it. The first few chapter are a sort of introduction, the summary is from chapter two.  
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><p><strong><span>Crup in a Baby Cup<span>  
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**Chapter one - Wiggle, Jiggle a little bit of a Pickle  
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His left foot tapped extremely quickly, almost impossibly so. His left fingers wiggled spasmodically from where they rested on the knee of his left leg. His other hand was buried deep within his crazily messy locks and his eyes darted from side to side in a mix of suspiciousness and nervousness.

He could see the disgusted looks of everyone around him; the receptionist looked like she wanted to throttle him; if the constant inking of already inked quills was anything to go by. He couldn't help it though, in theory he should have been able to control these strange impulses.

But each time he stopped and his mind wandered away, he would start up again with more gusto than before. He had been waiting for precisely, five hours, twenty three minutes and fifteen ... sixteen... seventeen... seconds. He had arrived there as soon as the door opened and despite the receptionist's annoyance at having an unexpected visitor to this particular centre she didn't attempt to send him away.

However she had warned that it was possible that he wouldn't get to see the one that he wished to see – since he was apparently a really very important person these days and to even have a _minute_ of his time out of schedule would be grossly unimaginable – well he was happy to wait all day to see him.

If anyone could help, it was Malfoy.

He blinked when a slight shadow walked into his source of light and looked up in an almost confused manner, the receptionist – who was so far past fed up she had actually gone to consult her boss about this annoying bug herself before he managed to drive her and all the other people around ballistic – managed a somewhat welcoming smile and gestured for him to stand up.

"Sir, Mr. Malfoy would be happy to meet your acquaintance now; if you would like to follow me."

He stared at her uncannily for a few moments, successfully creeping her out, as she could almost swear that unblinking gaze was staring straight into her soul and beyond. At last he smiled slightly – she couldn't help but mentally sigh at the beauty and innocence of it – and stood up.

She walked in front of him and couldn't help but wonder why this young man wanted to see Draco Malfoy, she had seen people walk out after having to wait half an hour and yet this man had waited since the office had opened to see him and for so many hours, without speaking or moving; impulses aside of course.

She could almost forgive him for his annoying habits.

She knocked slightly on Mr. Malfoy's door and stepped back, "You can go in now sir, Mr Malfoy is expecting your arrival."

The crazy haired, green eyed man smiled and indented his head in a respectful nod before he opened the door and walked in. The lady cocked a well shaped eyebrow and shook her head. She really did think that she had seen all the weirdoes of the wizarding world working there.

* * *

><p>"Bloody hell Pansy, it is a baby how should I know what to do with it!"<p>

It was safe to say that Draco Malfoy was having an absolute pig's ear of a day. First off his alarm was late waking him up that morning – that is to say his house elf couldn't wake him up due to ridiculous amounts of alcohol he had consumed the night before – he had a headache the length of Merlin and Dumbledore's beards combined and now he had some idiot that thought he had time to spare for a chat.

"_I don't want it anymore Draco, it won't shut up just wawawa all day long. How do people actually go through __**pregnancy **__for this crap? Can't I have a refund? It smells and won't let me sleep through the night and Blaise isn't here to look after it and he specified that the house elves weren't to touch it!" _

Draco rolled his eyes and tuned her out, he was dimly aware of his receptionist having some sort of business with him as the phone to his left was going off – he had never been more impressed when the muggle appliance had been brought up during a work conference, he still wasn't awfully fond of muggles but they did have the most interesting objects – he moved away from the fireplace and picked up the phone.

"What is it now Sharon?" he asked tiredly rubbed his forehead with the slender hand that wasn't holding the phone itself, he listened for a while his pale eyebrows frowning as he thought of who the hell could be coming to see him out of the blue. It wasn't that he wasn't famous because by george was he ever.

He and a team of specially trained wizards and witches worked in a branch of St. Mungos; it wasn't on the same site but there was a portkey room in each so that one could move between the two buildings efficiently. Their main job was to come up with new spells, diagnosis and sometimes cures.

Being head of the team, Draco himself was most concerned with strange cases and finding out from which direction a solution could be found, after all you wouldn't want to give any old new cure to a patient suffering from a disease; not only was it unethical but the possibilities of making it easier to spread or making it worse had to be thought of.

He was also known to pick up some _little _jobs on the side such as the problem of Pansy and Blaise; his best friends who had been married for four years and still hadn't managed to have a baby. While there were dark, _dark _spells that could find ways around it with no Voldemort running around it was far easier for dark wizards and witches to be caught in the act.

Therefore they had sent their problem to him and he had – using the help of muggle inventions – managed to create a spell to create an artificial womb outside the mothers body and yet be able to infuse DNA of both the mother and father – or whoever held the imperfection of not being able to procreate – in order to have their offspring.

While it wasn't terribly legal for him to do such things without recording it, it wasn't a dark spell – _yet _– since he created it and hence he couldn't get into trouble about it. His friends didn't seem to be the parenting type however, Pansy didn't know diddly squat about how to take care of babies and Blaise was often off to see his investments and family in Italy.

So it was strange to have a person randomly wish to see him unless they were being referred by St. Mungos and he would have known days or possibly months in advance that they were coming – since he was just _that _much in demand – he couldn't help but feel well ... befuddled.

He heard the knock at his door and swiftly ended the call with Pansy without remorse before settling himself back into his throne like chair. He couldn't resist a smirk at himself when he felt the tension leave his shoulders at the comfortableness of the chair. Doing his job really did have it advantages.

He swung his chair around – since his desk was the closest to the door, for safety reasons of course – and stood to greet whoever entered his room. But when the door opened and he saw his visitor he found himself wide eyed and clutching the desk for stability as his knees went weak.

"_Potter?"_

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><p>Harry cocked his head to the side when Malfoy called his name like that; he supposed it would be slightly odd on your return to the Wizarding world to see the one person – well – one of the most hated people there. He really did have a good reason for turning up there.<p>

"Malfoy," he replied courteously in greeting and stood there in silence allowing time for the blonde's brain to catch up with reality. It sure did take a while but he let out a smile when finally – _one minute, forty five seconds later_ – the blonde waved a hand dismissively at the chair opposite his desk.

It was safe to say that Draco's brain was now fried and he was considering checking himself into St. Mungos to make sure he wasn't actually hallucinating. No one had seen Harry Potter in a long time, well it was possible that Weasel and Granger had but as far as he knew – by which he meant as far as the tabloids had mentioned – no one else had.

It was actually quite funny to him in a way; of course Potter would be attracted to him wherever he went, no matter how far he tried to get away from him. The little – well more like big – sod was always near him doing something that was going to annoy him no matter what.

He shook his head and sat on his chair, resting his rounded – with a _slight_ elegant point – chin on his dainty, slender and pale hands. "Just what is it I can do for you Potter?" he asked smoothly, his voice portraying the interest and curiosity at getting to see the golden boy before most had known he had reappeared in public.

A voice in the back of him mind swooning, did he ever know how to grow up and look good whilst doing it. Draco full agreed with the little voice. For lack of words – not that he would admit it – Potter was bloody stunning. Gone was the weedy twit with the anger management problem and bad glasses now he could be likened to freaking Adonis.

His hair was still a raven inky blue black leaning more on the black side than the blue, but he could guarantee that if the sun hit just right, the blue would shine through. His eyes were no longer wide and naive – in that typical Gryffindork manner – but more refined and piercing; almost burning and captivating; no longer hidden by those ridiculously thick granny glasses.

He had to be touching six foot maybe a little more or less not that it mattered either way for Draco, he was stuck at five ten and it didn't look like he was going to get any taller. While he still had the thin frame from his childhood he had bulked up slightly, Draco didn't suppose one could lose such an unhealthily skinny frame even if they ate a ten course meal of greasy animal lard every day.

He wore baggy wash stained jeans that hung low on his hips and a three quarter sleeved soft white cotton top with a small pocket on the left breast, which seemed to hold a golden pocket watch or something similar. His skin looked smooth and tanned, without highly visible blemishes.

He glanced up, yep that famous thunderbolt scar still graced his forehead but due to the crazily messy – I just got shagged five ways to Sunday – look which also happened to be longer and would probably have reached his shoulders if wet; it wasn't as easy to spot.

"Malfoy?"

Draco blinked and looked back at the brunette sitting, now looking rather amusedly at him, crap! He had been caught, hook line and sinker. He wouldn't be a Malfoy if he couldn't keep it all in his stride though so he gave a pleasant smirk – since Malfoy's didn't smile – and tilted his head to one side.

"Pardon me?"

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><p>Harry resisted the urge to snort, how one could act so innocent when they had been caught so obviously ogling someone else was beyond him. He didn't blame the blonde, he had changed massively since the Hogwarts days and Hermione had always teased him that if he wasn't such a hermit she would have bagged him when she could have.<p>

Thankfully for him, it _was _just a joke. He liked Hermione but he wouldn't want to marry her; she was more the sisterly type for him, her bossiness would do little but incite his temper and while it was rather controlled now. It was still quick to ignite under the correct conditions as Ginny had learnt.

He regarded the blonde before him and repeated his words, "I said, I need your help," he drank in the sight of widened storm cloud grey eyes and gave himself the time to ogle. After all the blonde had always been handsomely beautiful although towards the end of Hogwarts he did seem to be heading in the gangly way that puberty left boys.

He certainly was no longer gangly that was for sure,

The blonde had tapered off at around five nine and a half, five ten – _just _– he was slender as he had always been during Hogwarts; he couldn't imagine Draco ever being stocky or fat anyways so it didn't come as much of a surprise to him. He had grown out his hair much like his father's but it was a whiter blonde and thinner; he had slicked it back with gel and tied with it with a black ribbon.

His face was rounded slightly giving him a boyish look but he still had high cheekbones and an aristocratic look that gave him an elegant air and didn't trick one into thinking they were dealing with a young boy rather than the heir to an astounding family background.

Unlike the witches – excluding the receptionist – and wizards in the waiting room he didn't wear robes but rather a thick silk cobalt collared shirt with snitch cufflinks and soft tan pressed trousers. It almost made Harry doubt his profession but lying on his desk was deep crimson dragon hide gloves and behind his door was a matching long dragon scale apron.

His office also had a hidden door behind the floor to ceiling bookcase which he could guess was an escape route, secret lab or both tied together.

Both Draco's eyebrows lifted towards his hairline, "You want _my_ help?" he asked incredulously putting emphasise on the 'my' just to make sure they were both on the same page. Harry smiled and nodded; if he knew this was all it took for Draco Malfoy to get that dumbstruck look he would have tried it years ago.

"Yes, I want your help. With a few things actually, so I want you to come with me,"

Draco's eyes nearly popped out of his skull, was he really hearing this craziness; he laughed bitterly and clapped looking around his office for some sort of clue that there was a disillusion spell going on, "Great joke Potter, who put you up to this?" he asked somewhat bitterly.

He _had_ hoped that the two of them were past this now, after all who could be so _cruel_ as to show up after five – six years just to play a wicked prank?

Harry frowned slightly, "I wasn't joking, I really do need your help with some things but you can't help me here since I don't live here-" Draco cut him off smoothly before he could continue whatever he had to say because frankly for being Potter, he was being more unreasonable than usual.

"And you can't come here for treatment? I'm not here solely for your use Potter I do actually have a life."

"Catering to friends that are too bratty to deal with problems themselves?" Harry shot back his eyebrow cocked, Draco looked taken aback and his face seemed to struggle to settle on an expression before it descended into a deeply offended one that had Harry mentally groaning,

'_Great going Potter, excellent way to get his cooperation on this.'_

He stood up and slammed his hands on his desk – Harry winced that had to have hurt – and narrowed his eyes on the world famous man, he really wasn't a boy anymore that was for sure.

"Who do you think you are? Coming in here acting like you can just mock me and boss me around in my own place of work. If you think I'll sit back and take this you better wake up and smell the potions-"he rambled on and on; Harry really couldn't stand to hear any more of it so he stood and placed a long finger against those sinfully soft lips.

When he had a spare moment he would laugh at the memory of a thoroughly shocked Draco Malfoy but as he knew he was about one step away from being kicked out on his arse he quickly made his point. "Draco, I'm not jerking you around! I really do need your help and you can't help me here because I won't be treated here-"

"And why is that oh great one? Do you think you're too great for this place and who the bloody hell made you king anyway? I never said you could call me by my name so kindly refrain. I really don't know who you think you are Potter but I won't be silenced in my own office or listen to your demands any longer!" he slapped Harry's finger away from his face and attempted to physically move him out the door.

"Malfoy I'm sorry, I take it back but really this is important I need you to take a look at this, you'll be mad I didn't –"

He didn't even get to finish his sentence before he was sent sailing out the door with a well placed, '_Carpe Retractum'_ by Draco who seemed to have pulled out his wand from thin air. Before he could even open his mouth he was glared at before the door was slammed in his face.

Harry sighed and stood up, the fingers of his left hand once again spasmodically wiggling, he had waited all that time for a grand total of fifteen minutes and 13 seconds of Malfoy's time all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut or remember his manners from when he actually had to deal with a respectable bunch of people.

"I take it things didn't go well?"

He turned away to see the sharp dress of the receptionist before, and Harry grimaced and shrugged his shouldered helplessly, "We never have got on terribly well but I was hoping for a slightly better reception," she laughed,

"The name's Sharon Winterborrow, I assure you Mr. Malfoy is already in a foul mood so unless you happen to be someone he likes I don't suppose there is much chance in you speaking with him again today. May I suggest you visit again tomorrow or if you know where his townhouse is located I suggest you try there?"

Harry chuckled to himself and sighed, "Not a chance, now that he knows I'm around he will veto me at every step. Besides I can only afford to be here today, then I have to go. I'll just sit around until he comes to his senses, I don't suppose you could routinely let him know I'm still waiting?"

Sharon was suspicious of this young man but she didn't think that she had anything to fear and so she nodded, "Of course sir, I can do that but you should know that he is well known for his grudges; he may not wish to see you again today." She told him apologetically and she found herself almost recoiling when his emerald eyes darkened.

"Don't worry, if not today he will most definitely see me by the time the month is up; even if I have to drag him after me kicking and screaming!"

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><p>"Blaise please come home and tell your wife to stop firecalling the office, while I did give her this address it is only for emergencies which she is not holding true to. Telling me that the baby won't stop crying is hardly an emergency; I know she has those baby books so certainly she should know what to do without my help!" Draco moaned to his friend, it was a few hours after he had kicked Harry out and still Pansy had managed to call him three times.<p>

The Italian wizard grinned mischievously and shrugged, "I can't, mother wants me here for her wedding, thankfully this time it's only a small one; heavens forbid she actually runs away during another big wedding. Pansy will cope for a few more days without me, if not then I'm sure her mother or even your mother will be able to help out,"

Draco frowned,

"My mother isn't here for your entertainment you know, they are purely in town for a convention then she is going back to France and father is heading over to the Ministry in Bulgaria for some big ministry conference and Sev is staying for a Potion Master's conference before they too, are heading back to France."

It sometimes bothered him how far away his parents were but at the same time he knew that England just didn't have the same appeal to them once the war had finished and their names had been dragged through the mud. They were much better received by other branches of the family elsewhere.

They were happy and had a much better quality of living.

Blaise rolled his eyes, "Either way, if you weren't working all the time then Pansy wouldn't be able to talk to you, so maybe you can do something about it yourself by staying out of the office until I come back. Either that or you should stop accepting her firecalls, what's the worst she can do?"

Draco resisted the urge to pout and turned to look out the window, Blaise always knew how to make him feel like a chastised child when all he wanted was a little bit of sympathy. Was it really so bad for him to have a little self pity spell? No one ever let him sulk anymore without beginning their lectures about how he was an adult and blahblahblah.

He noticed his phone from Sharon beeping and told Blaise to be quiet while he answered; he wasn't best pleased with the news she had to give him. Not one little bit; however being a gentleman he bit back his horrid responses and calmly told her that he wasn't to be disturbed for the rest of the day.

He then cut off communications with Blaise; despite his protests and stalked around his room angrily; what in the bloody hell had he done to deserve Potter stalking him all of a sudden. He tapped his face, ordering himself to think about how he could get the stupid golden man to leave him alone again.

Being a daddy's boy, he couldn't resist the urge and firecalled his father; Lucius always knew what to do.

* * *

><p>"Potter?" Lucius was sceptical, it was certainly odd that the Potter boy had come back simply to talk to his son; Draco may have been good at what he did but there were certainly those who were better and would also be more willing to help him simply because of who he was.<p>

"Did you ask what he wanted?" Severus asked curiously, Draco glared at him,

"Of course I didn't! I don't want him here, I don't even know why he wants me other than the fact he wants me to go to his home to help him with something," both their eyebrows shot up and the two men looked at each other, a look passed between them that Draco couldn't understand.

"Well no one knows that he is here so we can be sure that he thinks you'll be adult enough to keep quiet about seeing him either that or he is sure that you would be interested enough to help him; he is still waiting for you I take it?" Lucius asked and Draco nodded, though he was hard pressed not to pout at the insult his father had given him.

He was an adult; it wasn't like he had already called the papers,

"The smart thing would be to hear what he has to say, if no one has heard from him apart from those two friends of his –" Draco almost sniggered at the face that his 'other' father pulled at the mention of the two students he used to teach. Weasley was a well known Auror now and Granger was a Healer, go figure.

"- then you should listen, since of all the people he could contact, why on earth would he want to speak to you?" Severus pondered and this time Draco couldn't hide his pout, he didn't understand why they both seemed more amazed that Harry would want to talk to him than the idea that he had turned up again.

Lucius smirked at both his lover and his son before he added his two pence to the conversation,

"Either way, you should go to him and find out what it is he really wants from you and then make your decision from there, you aren't a boy anymore Draco and we can't keep working things out for you," his father told him and Severus snorted before his face disappeared from the firecall.

Draco glared at his father before he cut off the call from his end and moved around to sit at his desk,

"Sharon, is that idiot from before still sitting outside?"

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><p>The little boy whined childishly cocking his head to one side and pouting, almost as though he was saying; "What took you so long Papa?"<p>

Harry smiled and his right hand tangled in his locks as he scratched an unreachable itch, "I'm sorry Teddymonster, it was important though I promise, I didn't mean to worry you." Harry picked up the small six year old and smiled at him as he cuddled close to his carer.

"He has been the darling little boy as usual but maybe you need to think about having him looked at, it really isn't normal that he doesn't talk." Hermione commented as she walked into the nursery; she and Ron weren't yet ready for their own children but they were prepared just in case of accidents or at least Molly wanted to make sure that they were ready.

Harry nodded distractedly as he moved towards the front door, he had driven to Hermione and Ron's and luckily he was of sound mind to drive back. He could almost feel her disapproving stare as he moved towards it, "Harry James Potter; just wait one minute before you go bounding off into the moonlight;" he sighed,

"You know, Teddy should also really spend more time with his grandmother; you aren't his father you know and I know that you'll tell him when he's older but really do you think you are thinking of him as you should?"

Harry was thankful he had placed Teddy on the right side because his left hand was vigorously wiggling in tune with his growing frustration but he didn't respond to her, he smiled and turned around,

"Goodnight Hermione,"

And left.


End file.
